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According to CREAF, the new conservation paradigm demands an integrative management of biodiversity beyond the protection limited to endangered species and protected areas. There is an international consensus on the potential of cities as a refuge for native biodiversity.

However, according to the entity, our knowledge of urban biodiversity is highly limited. Butterflies are one of the best indicators of biodiversity. Given the growing interest of citizens in participating in environmental projects, uBMS proposes to create a network of volunteers who sample butterflies in Madrid and Barcelona. With this, very relevant data will be obtained to evaluate urban biodiversity and with the aim of raising awareness among citizens about its value.

The main objective is to establish a citizen observatory of butterfly biodiversity in the public gardens of the two main cities in Spain.

The specific objectives are as follows:

• To organise a network of volunteers to form a citizen butterfly observatory in Madrid and Barcelona, with the potential to be sustainable, manageable and expandable over time, following the concept of citizen butterfly observatories.
• Encourage the participation of network volunteers to obtain monthly counts of the number and species of butterflies present in the gardens of Madrid and Barcelona during the adult flight periods (from March to October).
• To raise public awareness of the importance of biodiversity.
• Ensure that data from citizen science are exploitable and of the highest quality.
• Involve the public administrations (city councils) in the creation and future maintenance of the observatory; as well as in raising public awareness of urban biodiversity.
• To have a bioindicator of the status and trends of urban biodiversity through the counting of a bioindicator group (butterflies), and the ecological factors involved.
• To draw up guidelines for the management of gardens and their surroundings to promote biodiversity in cities.

• Preparatory activities: development of promotional and outreach materials
• Preparation actions: Creation of the data collection and visualization system.
• Preparation actions: creation of participation materials.
• Preparation actions: exploration and selection of gardens.
• Coordination actions: involvement of public administrations.
• Coordination actions: management of the observatory.
• Actions to encourage participation: recruitment of volunteers.
• Data collection actions: butterfly counts.
• Analysis actions: butterfly biodiversity and ecological factors involved.
• Management actions: urban management proposal.

According to CREAF, the Citizen Observatory of Urban Butterflies could be considered as a starting point for obtaining data on urban populations. A total of 6,165 butterflies have been recorded, 2,529 in Madrid and 3,636 in Barcelona, of 51 different species, which represents approximately 38% of the biodiversity of butterflies on the Peninsula. The richness of butterfly species in cities is medium-low compared to natural areas. However, more species of butterflies have been found than initially expected. The importance of improving garden vegetation and the amount of green present in the city to improve the biodiversity of butterflies is highlighted.